A “world order” is a framework of power, ideas and interactions that its makers believe is beneficial for the wellbeing and stability of their societies and others beyond them. This is the definition offered by the Indian international relations scholar Amitav Acharya in his latest book, The Once and Future World Order. Acharya puts civilisations at the centre of his historical survey of selected previous orders over the last 5,000 years, concentrating on five of them before “the rise of the West”, with its early capitalist colonialism from the 16th century.

Near Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Islamic and Indian Oceanic civilisational world orders contributed their power, ideas and interactions to others. They include non-western civilisations like Egypt, India, China, Persia and the Islamic World, and western civilisations such as the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire and ancient Greece.

They were subjected to the relentless conquests, settler colonialisms and exploitations of European, British and later US imperial powers. But they also borrowed heavily from those predecessors, both in their concepts of world order and civilised interaction – and in their ruthless use of military force.

Such a deep and broad historical perspective is needed to temper the alarmist talk of western decline and presumed worldwide instability or chaos. Much of this has flowed recently from the dramatic displays of power between Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and

© The Irish Times